I Want to See The World ! : Ayutthaya....

My saviour..... good coffee!

January 19..... I woke up at 0530 without coffee.... so painful :( We are trying to head out early, maybe around 0700. Gotten ready, and head out pretty much at the planned time, and catch the bus to Hualamphong station. First priority.... COFFEE! I almost kiss the lady that run a small coffee shop on the roadside, never been happier to see coffee.. actual REAL coffee! Grabbed little snacks along the way to the bus stop (there's no shortage of this along the way). We got on the bus, but missed our intended stop, so we had to catch the bus of the opposite direction. Strange thing on the bus... the fee collector person didn't ask us for money, when I was trying to pay her I think she said it's free. Really? We couldn't believe that but I guess when we made it into the train station we realized it was real :D. The fare to Ayutthaya was cheap, around 15 Baht per person for 3rd class seat which wasn't bad at all. Again, the train was not crowded. The trip was slow and painful prior to Don Mueang station, but somehow picked up speed quite a bit after and we arrived basically almost at the scheduled time to Ayutthaya. All pictures are on the bottom of the page.
A little historical background of Ayutthaya. It was a glorious city which records had mentioned other countries to adore the beauty of it. Maybe back then it was kinda like New York, Tokyo or Rome... something like that. When the Burmese invaded the city around 3 centuries ago they burned the place and destroyed the city. Some rubbles of the ancient city still stood up because they were made of stones, for example the temples. Other structures that were made of wood was burned down. The place was declared as World Heritage site by UNESCO. As soon as we arrived in Ayutthaya, the tuktuk drivers happily welcomed all the tourist with their tuktuk tour which they tried to charge around 900 Baht for few hours. Claiming we will not be able to walk around because it's far around 6 km, also claimed that there is no bike rental place around (yapp, we showed him wikitravel site :D) . We thanked him for the offer, and he gave us map at the information, went across the street and found bike rental place basically right away :D. We had something to eat at one of the local restaurant, very delicious basil fried rice, and the owner was a very lovely Thai lady name Jintana. She was VERY helpful. She arranged the boat ride down the river for us and gave us useful tips and options around the island, including how much tuktuk driver should charge us if we decided to take tuktuk back to the ferry port from the park area (should be 50 baht for ALL not per person).
We decided not to take the bicycle, and good thing we didn't. It was very hot and nowhere to hide in the shade on the bike. We walked, and managed to hit some nice places on foot... even though it was hot! The ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya was amazing... we could only imagine how beautiful this city was before it was destroyed by Burmese invasion around 3 centuries ago. Around the area of course there are more temples. We take tuktuk back to the ferry port, and head back to the restaurant we had lunch at, to wait for our boat ride. The boat ride took around 2 hours, and we visited 3 temples along the way. The first temple was where the Big Buddha statue is, the second temple was where the sleeping Buddha is, and the third one was the sunset temple, which really reminded me of Prambanan. Very beautiful place....I can't imagine how beautiful this place must be in the past. Being around Ayutthaya really reminded me of Indonesia, and I gotten very homesick and longing to see Indonesia again. There are so many places in Indonesia I haven't gone to, that are just as amazing. I also found Thai people a little stingy with the smile.... even when you smile at them :D .... mostly in the tourist area... maybe we are annoying? Hehe.... Not everybody, but some... a little hard to get smile from them :D (I tried few times, cause I love people's smile.... ) I'm not gonna give up giving smiles to people though :D I did run into some people that are very friendly and generous with the smile. Joyce and Jintana are the two sweet people I met so far. Thai food also reminded me of Indonesia..... there's no shortage of similar food in Jakarta... that's for sure! I think my travel to Thailand really made me realize that I should spend more time exploring Indonesia, since we still have a lot of places still untouched and unspoiled by tourism. One downside of travelling in Indonesia is that it's really tough to go to some of the remote places due to lack of transport.... maybe next time I will plan another adventure in Indonesia! Basically, the whole time I was in Ayutthaya and thinking about my next move, all I could think about is Indonesia, and how many places I still wanna go to there. Nature wise, Indonesia and Thailand basically the same. Tropical paradise and lush mountain sides. Difference only in culture. And I think what I want to experience is people, not just amazing structures and luscious scenery, because Indonesia has it all too. I am quite surprise how helpful Thai people are with directions, and their tourist info office people, even despite smile-less face, they gave very good information! Even in touristy area such as Khaosan Road, food vendors or shop keepers always readily help you with honest information.... something that sometimes lacking in touristy places in Indonesia. I also found train service is quite decent here, basically you can get to where ever you want and cheap. Exception to this is the overnight train, which could be quite pricey! One thing I noticed with tuktuk drivers, a lot of warnings to tourists to be careful with tuktuk drivers and their scams of taking you to places you don't wish to go. Same with becak drivers in Yogyakarta. I wish if they gonna jacked up prices with tourists they don't overdo it. If they don't ask too much , maybe more people more willing to take tuktuk... why not? It's something unique to the country and has to be part of the experience :D Hell, I love riding on those! A bit more quiet than Indonesian's Bajaj :D That will bring more revenue too I think, because more people will be more willing to just take tuktuk everywhere they go! The tuktuk driver we asked in Ayutthaya, wanted 150 Baht per person..... hehe... crazy driver :D We know he's just trying to make money.... but a bit much I think :D We ended up with another tuktuk driver that's willing to take us for 50 Baht for all..... I forgot to give him extra tip :(Besides hanging out with the restaurant owner, Jintana, another best part of the day was the boat trip. It was very relaxing, and the scenery of local houses and people are the part I enjoy the most. Local people always waved when they see tourist on the boat.... very sweet and I managed to catch a glimpse of some.... I really love watching locals kayaking on the river, fishing, and kids playing by the river.... And I enjoy the smiles the most! Maybe this is excuse to learn Thai? :D We took another long train ride home, but wow... this time the train only 1 minute late, which most of us will call 'basically on time' :D This time, the train ride was fast, so was the bus ride. At first we figured it will be around 2200 before we get home, but we got home around 2100. Had shower then head out to find good place to sit and drink.... impossible obviously :D We found a quieter pad thai place, where we sat and ate for a bit, then took off to find a quiet place with nice music to sit. We decided to go to the same street corner to 'nongkrong' (Indonesian word for sitting and chatting with friends) Definitely, Khaosan Road was only tolerable for 2 days.... The hustle and bustle gets to me, because this isn't the kind of things I want to see... Although, I do enjoy stepping outside my hostel and right away food is there :D) Time to leave and move on to another adventure. Before long it was time to go to bed, we will check out of our hostel tomorrow.